By Akanimo Sampson,
Port Harcourt
APPARENTLY irked by the hike in electricity tariffs and continued fuel scarcity in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has lashed out at the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) saying the party lacks vision and sound economic policies to drive Nigeria to the promised land.
Rivers State chapter Chair of the party, Felix Obuah, who hit at the governing party on Thursday in Port Harcourt, the state capital, urged the electorate in the state to shun candidates of the APC at the polls.
APC and PDP are locked in a bitter shadow war for the political soul of the oil rich state. The state Election Petition Tribunal has since nullified the elections of all elected PDP candidates in the state legislature, and the National Assembly
At the moment, the fate of Governor Nyesom Wike, is hanging on where the pendulum will swing in the Supreme Court. The election annulled his victory, and the Appeal Court upheld the verdict.
Obuah has strongly chided the increase in electricity tariffs as announced by Abuja through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), saying the new electricity tariff regime is exerting more hardship on citizens.
According to the PDP, ”electricity consumers in Rivers, and in all parts of the country are suffering untold hardship in the past few months. This is further made worse by the absence of affordable and available petroleum products”.
The party has taken an exception to the decision of the NERC and by extension, the Federal Government for what they described as ”the wrong timing and the excruciating pains” on Nigerians who voted in anticipation of positive change but are now struggling to survive the effects of bad economic policies and actions of the APC administration at the centre.
On the plight of consumers in Rivers, the PDP is of the view that the government should take urgent and effective steps in addressing the dwindling economic situation and poverty that is growing across the country so as to cushion the resultant effects of such increment in electricity power tariffs.
While sympathising with the electorate, the PDP chief called on them to resist ”bad economic policies of the APC by speaking out and be prepared to resist a visionless APC that has improvished them and destroyed the economy.
”NERC should reconsider their decision, particularly its implementation at this period when the economy appears to have collapsed under the current APC government at the centre, and when good governance has become an illusion in the country.
”Petroleum products have been consistently scarce while the available one sold exorbitantly, prices of food items and other consumables rising astronomically, transport fare becoming unbearable, while essential service now a mirage in the country. This is unacceptable as it negates the very essence of government.”
Meanwhile, the PDP has condemned the alleged inability of the APC under Buhari to release money meant for states from the Federation Account in December, which affected the payment of salaries before Christmas and the new year.